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Devin Townsend announces November and December 2019 European & UK Tour

Devin Townsend announces November and December 2019 European & UK Tour

Submitted by newseditor
on Tue, 01/29/2019 - 20:03

Canadian heavy music artist Devin Townsend has recently announced the release of his forthcoming new album “Empath” for March 29th, 2019, and now he is pleased to reveal the dates for the “Empath Europe – Volume 1“ tour starting in November 2019.

Tickets will go on sale Friday, February 1st at 10am local times and will be made available here and all other usual outlets.

Devin comments:
“After a year of intensive recording, mixing, and reflection, I have decided where I want to take the next level of my career as a live performer. I have had success and great memories from both the Devin Townsend Project as well as Strapping Young Lad, but now I am fortunate enough to be able to follow the muse where it currently leads. I am proud to announce that for the first "band" tour of the "Empath" cycle, I am going to stretch my wings in ways I have not had the opportunity to do before and tour with a 'backing band' that can shift and morph as the music dictates instead of adhering to a click track. "Empath Europe Volume 1" will be the first example of this, and the first tour will be in Europe (other territories to follow).

I have spent considerable effort think about the things I wanted to do for these shows, and one thing I came out of DTP with was the awareness that I wanted to incorporate a more improvisational element to what I do. With the best players I can find, my plan is to interpret my back catalogue, as well as the "Empath" material, in ways that may change nightly. less computers, and less of a rigid structure. I want to use Volume 1 as a way to bring my music to people in a potentially new way. People playing music...

I hope you will consider joining me at these concerts. As a performer, it’s important to be able to be willing to react, and my hope is that each of these shows will be a unique experience. Thank you for allowing me to do what I do. See you there?”...

In the lead up to the album’s release, Devin will walk fans through how “Empath” came together with a series of documentary episodes recorded as phone conversations during the course of the albums recording. Watch the first episode of that series below.

Over the past few years, the success that Devin has slowly worked for has fortunately come with the power to control his own creative destiny. The recent successes with the DVD from a sold-out Royal Albert hall, or his 2012 “Retinal Circus”, or last year’s “Ocean Machine” live DVD with the Orchestra and Choir of State Opera Plovdiv has put him in a position where with the new album “Empath”, he will once and for all define himself as a musical force outside of any particular genre classification.

On this album Devin has decided to see what would happen if all the styles that make up his current interests were finally represented in one place. To finally shake the fear of expectation, and just do what it is he was meant to do creatively, “Empath”, true to the name, is about allowing the audience a feeling for a variety of musical emotions. The musical dynamics represented on this single album are broad, challenging, and immense. To approach this sort of work with a long history of what makes heavy music ‘heavy’, allows this to be done with a type of power rarely heard.

A bold statement with massive production values and dynamic, uncompromised musicality. This is a statement about not only pursuing creative freedom in a conservative scene, but also trying to show that heavy music is truly a valid musical tool.

Devin’s varied back catalogue is also being celebrated with lavish vinyl box-sets under the name of ERAS. Having already released parts 1 and 2 earlier in early 2018, the end of the year saw the release of part 3, which features some of his most recent work with Devin Townsend Project, including the albums “Accelerated Evolution”, “Epicloud”, “Sky Blue”, “Transcendence” & the first ever vinyl release of the second part of the DTP’s now legendary Royal Albert Hall show. Order your copy of this deluxe 10 LP box-set here.